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These estimates are debatable, in part, because the quality of information coming from the spill response is so debatable. But here are some guesstimates:
At 100,000 bbl a day, there's 4.2 million gallons a day of oil entering the Gulf of Mexico. BP claims to have recovered a 1.1 million gallons of oil over the last 24 hours.
Let's be generous and assume that only 50,000 bbl/day of oil has been released, which is 2.1 million gallons of oil per day. And let's assume (very generously), that BP has been collecting 1.1 million gallons of oil per day since Day 1 (It certainly hasn't, and it probably still isn't, but let's assume). That means (64 days)x(1.1 million gallons/day) = 70 million gallons (about 6 Exxon Valdez Oil Spills) are floating around in the Gulf right now. Another 40 or 50 million gallons will be floating around by the time the relief wells are completed. The total equals about 10 Exxon Valdez Oil Spills.
Want to get really angry? Take a look at the satellite photos showing the gray/brown sludge spreading all over the Gulf, from Texas to Florida. Then recognize that a huge amount of the oil isn't even on the surface where it can be photographed, it's in the water column poisoning everything it comes into contact with. Add a couple million more gallons of toxic dispersant, just because things weren't bad enough already.
The damage isn't going to be observed in oiled and dead animals. It's going to be observed in the animals that are never heard from again: turtles that die and sink to the bottom; turtles that are swept up in boom and burned alive; dolphins that die and sink into the abyss; fish poisoned by chemicals that destroy their gills, their ability to breath; animals that won't be counted--they just aren't there anymore when this is over. Like sea turtles that never come ashore to lay eggs again.
BP corrosion engineers on Alaska's North Slope have a saying: If we do our job well, that pipe will spring a leak at the very moment the last drop of oil flows through it. They call it run to fail mode. It isn't cutting costs, it's "finding efficiencies."
How about a saying for holding BP accountable for what it's done in the Gulf? How about: If we the people force our representative government to do the job right, BP will be bankrupt and close its doors just when the last victim is completely compensated. BP can pay financially for the damage being done to people's livelihoods. For what it's done to the environment, it deserves the corporate death penalty.
And how about 11 lives lost so a handful of mid-level managers can collect a bonus for "finding efficiencies."
In summary:
An (under)estimated 110+ million gallons of oil floating around or dispersed in the water column of the Gulf...
An unknown, and unknowable, loss of marine life...
An entire economy, and possibly an entire way of life, destroyed...
And 11 lives lost...
...for profit.
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